【内容简介】

　　1945年4月16日，星期一，凌晨4点整。

　　离德国首都东部不到62公里的地方，涨水的奥得河上方的夜空中，突然燃起了红色的火焰，令人目瞪口呆的战斗即将打响，苏联人对希特勒第三帝国发动的最后进攻开始了。柏林——这座古老的文明之都，即将化为被炮火、妒火和欲火彻底焚毁的废墟。

　　柏林战役是第二次世界大战欧洲战场上的一场终极恶战。这一次，被复仇冲昏头脑的士兵将枪口瞄向了柏林市民，“一双眼换一只眼，一池血换一滴血”。这场战役给柏林带来了毁灭性创痛。它不仅导致纳粹利维坦巨兽的垮台，也为冷战时期的一系列国际问题埋下了伏笔。

　　为了还原第三帝国崩溃的历史，科尼利厄斯•瑞恩寻访了2000多人，包括艾森豪威尔、蒙哥马利、科涅夫、崔可夫、海因里希等盟军将领，还有众多平民和士兵。在冷战局势紧张时期，瑞恩不顾阻挠深入莫斯科，查阅苏联不肯公开的档案，最终汇聚成这部用真相震撼世界的经典之作。

　　在《最后一役》中，一方面是波澜壮阔的战争场面，另一方面却是柏林平民尤其是女性所经受的梦魇般的厄运。透过战争和政治层面的内核，瑞恩再次将笔端指向生存这个更为根本的问题。他说，在这段黑暗岁月里，“吃饭比爱更重要，躲藏比战斗更有尊严，忍受比获得胜利更为正确”。对战争以及战争深渊中个体生存与命运的深刻书写，使得这本书成为“论述战争的不朽著作之一”。

　　作者简介

　　科尼利厄斯·瑞恩（Cornelius Ryan，1920-1974）

　　但凡经历过战场，每个人都会对战争有着更为真切的思考，科尼利厄斯·瑞恩就是其中一位。

　　身为二战时期杰出的战地记者，瑞恩曾随同美国第8、第9空军参与14次轰炸行动，亲历诺曼底登陆，跟随巴顿将军的第3集团军挺进法国和德国，直至攻克柏林。在前线，瑞恩与成千上万的亲历者密切接触。不论是艾森豪威尔、巴顿、蒙哥马利这些军事天才，还是登陆诺曼底、参与市场—花园行动的年轻士兵，抑或纳粹将领海因里齐、沦陷区的柏林市民，都在他的笔下保留了当时历史的真实记忆。《时代》周刊评论道，科尼利厄斯·瑞恩以近距离观察战争的眼光，历经鲜血和死亡的灵魂，完成了普通作家“不可能完成的任务”。

　　战争带来的伤痛，曾经深深嵌入亲历者的生命，让他们重拾那段记忆并不容易。从1956年起，瑞恩陆续奔赴德、法、苏联，耗时8年寻找幸存者，在采访5000多位见证人之后，最终完成旷世杰作“二战史诗三部曲”。1959年《最长的一天》首先上市，立即在战后国家引起震动，人们纷纷致信，感谢瑞恩让他们头一次知晓，自己的爱人、朋友、邻居曾经在那个伟大的时刻经历了什么。

　　科尼利厄斯·瑞恩先后被授予克里斯托弗奖、意大利班加雷拉文学奖以及法国荣誉军团骑士勋章。1974年，他因癌症病逝。美国新闻界特别以他的名义设立奖项，以此致敬这位“站在新闻与历史写作交叉路口的巨人”。

　　董旻杰

　　资深战争史研究者，曾任“知兵堂”执行总编，目前主要从事战争史翻译、审校和编撰工作，著有研究阿登战役的代表作品《沸腾的雪：阿登反击战》。

【 Content Introduction 】

Monday, April 16, 1945, 4:00 A.M. sharp.

Less than 62 kilometers east of the German capital, the night sky above the swollen Oder River suddenly burst into red flames, and the stunning battle was about to begin, the final offensive by the Soviets against Hitler's Third Reich. Berlin, the ancient capital of civilization, was about to be reduced to ruins destroyed by gunfire, jealousy and lust.

The Battle of Berlin was the final battle of World War II in Europe. This time, the vengeful soldiers turned their guns on the citizens of Berlin, "one eye for another, one pool of blood for one drop." The battle had a devastating effect on Berlin. Not only did it lead to the downfall of the Leviathan behemoth, it also set the stage for a host of international problems during the Cold War.

To reconstruct the history of the collapse of the Third Reich, Cornelius Ryan interviewed more than 2,000 Allied generals, including Eisenhower, Montgomery, Konev, Tzukov, and Heinrich, as well as numerous civilians and soldiers. In the midst of Cold War tensions, Ryan defied resistance to travel deep into Moscow and access the Soviet Union's withheld archives, ultimately putting together this world-shaking classic of truth.

In "The Last Battle," on the one hand, there are dramatic war scenes and on the other hand, the nightmarish fate of Berlin's civilians, especially women. Through the core of war and politics, Ryan again points to the more fundamental question of survival. In these dark days, he said, "it is more important to eat than to love, it is more dignified to hide than to fight, and it is more right to endure than to win." Its insightful depiction of war and the survival and fate of individuals in its abyss makes it "one of the most enduring works on war."

About the author

Cornelius Ryan (1920-1974)

Cornelius Ryan is one of those people who thinks more about war than anyone who has ever experienced it.

As a distinguished war correspondent during World War II, Ryan flew 14 bombing missions with the 8th and 9th Air Forces, witnessed the Normandy landings, and marched with General Patton's Third Army into France and Germany, leading to the capture of Berlin. On the front lines, Ryan had close contact with thousands of people who had witnessed it. Whether it is the military genius of Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery, or the young soldiers who landed in Normandy and participated in the Market-Garden operation, or the Nazi general Heinrich, the citizens of Berlin in the occupied areas, all retain the real memory of the history of the time in his writing. Time magazine commented that Cornelius Ryan's closeup look at the war, through the blood and death of the soul, accomplished the "impossible task" of the average writer.

The wounds of war are deeply embedded in the lives of those who witnessed it, and it is not easy for them to regain that memory. From 1956, Ryan successively went to Germany, France, and the Soviet Union, spent eight years searching for survivors, and after interviewing more than 5,000 witnesses, finally completed the masterpiece "World War II epic trilogy." When "The Longest Day" first came out in 1959, it immediately sent shockwaves through the postwar country, with people writing to thank Ryan for letting them know for the first time what had happened to their loved ones, friends, and neighbors at that great moment.

Cornelius Ryan was awarded the Christophe Prize, the Italian Literary Prize Bangarella, and the French Knight of the Legion of Honor. He died of cancer in 1974. The American press set up a special award in his name to pay tribute to this "giant standing at the intersection of journalism and history writing."

Dong Minjie

He is a senior researcher of the history of the war, and once served as the executive editor of the "Zhibing Tang". At present, he is mainly engaged in the translation, proofreading and compilation of the history of the war, and has written a representative work on the Ardennes Campaign, Boiling Snow: The Ardennes CounterAttack.